One Well-Worn Way

This is Pastor Dan. Just want to thank you for choosing this podcast by New Heights Fellowship

Baptist Church of East Toledo. Join us today in reaching New Heights in Jesus. In this

episode, look for the well-worn way. It's the wrong way, but it's a way that a lot of people go.

And we're going to choose to go a different way today. We're going to take the path less traveled by.

I'm gonna live without believe. I'm gonna live without believe.

Alright, so I hope you've been inspired this week. Does anybody know, Tony Tate, does anybody know what the word inspired actually means?

Alright, tell me. What does it mean?

It means that someone does something that you feel like it would be like a good thing to do.

That's what we use it for most of the time. Like I was inspired to go to work. Or I was inspired to give a gift. That's how we usually use it.

What is the actual definition of the word? Does anybody know?

Getting closer. That's really close now. You're really almost on target. You guys really got it.

The original place that it comes from is it means God breathed. That's what the word actually means.

So when we act in a way that encourages somebody to do something or feel good about what they did,

or encourages them to move forward, motivate them, whatever like that, we are sort of acting out what God did.

So we know that all scripture is inspired of the Lord, and so it's all God breathed.

God gave us the word of God to study it, to live by it. I guess David would certainly say that we ought to hide it in our heart.

We have plenty of encouragement, inspiration, motivation in the word of God itself to push us to want to know it better and live by it and so on.

So have you studied your Bible this week? Did you see anything in scripture? Something that might have made you go hmm.

Maybe something that you could share with us. Even if it felt like it was only for you.

Because sometimes in how you see things, that's how others learn to see things.

I see how that's specific to you. Now I'm looking for something that's specific to me in the same way.

How about it? What do you got to share? Spent a rough week?

I had an interesting experience in studying my Bible this week. I went and I've been using the U version Bible app to do my Bible study every morning.

And my Bible study, like sometimes it's only, you might literally only take a few minutes.

You know, the idea of a discipline is you plan to do it a certain way, right?

So when people do like discipline their bodies, they say, well, I'm going to make sure I go to sleep at a certain time every night.

I'm going to make sure I drink this much water. I'm going to make sure I work out this many times a week or on this day of the week.

And then they start going, I'm going to do 10 reps like this, 10 reps like this, 10 reps like this.

And then a few weeks later, it's like, I'm going to do 12 now because the 10 is pretty easy. And then it's 20 and then it's 30.

So you might start with, I'm just going to do three minutes or whatever. Or you might say, like I tried to do that.

I'm going to do first thing in the morning every morning before I do anything else.

So I've been laying in my bed in the morning before I do anything else, grabbing my U version Bible app.

I read the Bible verse or more than one in some cases and then writing something, typing something on my phone.

And I discovered that for the last, and I was putting them on there publicly, but somehow the public got switched to private.

And so I had to go on yesterday morning after I did my Bible study and go on and I had to change all of the last two and a half weeks or so of those to public.

Because that was my, that was part of my discipline. I said I was going to do that. I was going to make it public.

So if people wanted to see what I was doing, they can. So if you're in the U version Bible app and if you have notifications turned on and you're following my public posts,

I apologize for yesterday morning because I probably sent you about 20 posts. If you're not, you can.

And you don't have to turn the notifications on, but they're there. And then you might have something different and you can comment on my comment.

You're like, well, I can't be motivated. But then if you remind and disagree with me, that'll motivate you.

But yeah, Pastor Dan said this, but I can say this is that, you know, whatever. And we'll get, we'll get some discussion going if you want to do that.

But this morning I went to bed, I was working my sermon late last night and I had a bad headache and it lasted. It started about 830 and it lasted until about 1 30 in the morning.

And it was really bad. And I couldn't hardly finish my sermon. I was trying really hard to finish it up and put it in final form and I couldn't get there.

And my head hurt really bad. I finally broke down at 1 30 in the morning, took some ibuprofen and said I'm going to have to do it tomorrow morning.

So I woke up this morning, first thing, guess what was on my mind? Finishing my sermon. And for the first time in 58 days, the first thing I did in the morning was not study my Bible.

So no matter what you do, no matter how you set the disciplines, your rules, you realize, you know, it may fall apart.

There may come a time where you don't do it the way you intended to do it. But guess what I'll do? I hope I'll do first thing tomorrow morning is study my Bible.

So it ain't over yet. And I did. I started with my sermon and then I was like 10 minutes into it. I went, wait a minute, I didn't do my Bible study.

And so I stopped and went back. But I cannot say that 58 days, 59 days in a row, whatever it is, I can't say I did it every day that many days in a row, first thing, because I blew it this morning.

Okay. So I'm being transparent about my Bible study and by my saying, have you seen anything this week? And everybody's saying, no, I really haven't seen anything.

Y'all are being transparent about your Bible study too. Either you're saying I didn't study my Bible this week, or you're saying I did and I just don't have anything to share.

And I would encourage you to think it's a service. Think of it as a service. Think when you're reading your Bible, think what can I share? What can I talk about? Okay.

So we're just going to pray and jump back into worship. Remember, we are in the middle of our push for Bible study as a discipline and it will end.

And you will not see us push this hard for Bible study for probably five years. So if you can't begin to train yourself, discipline yourself to study your Bible now,

then you're going to have to do it without somebody standing up here week after week after week, pushing you to do that. Okay. So I encourage you to do that.

All right. So we need somebody to pray for us as we transition. And, you know, always the safe bet and the courage. All right. You want to do that? All right. All right.

Stacy's going to pray for us. Oh, no, I want to pray. Oh, you want to say something. Stacy wants to say something.

I listen to people in worship a lot because sometimes when I read some days I don't do good and I can't remember.

But there's a hand that's related to what's called from when I was younger. But it was before that. It's called trust and obey.

And some of the words are when we abide with the Word, we can guide us accordingly. The Word, it shuts on our way.

And there's no way to do it. It's as simple as trust and obey. Even the days I don't feel God, I know God's there because God is faithful.

Not that Stacy is faithful, God is faithful. And some days it's just as simple to trust and obey.

And that's very good. I love that song. I had forgotten about it until you just mentioned it, but I can hear a little bit of the chorus.

All right. So how about we pray? Is there a young person in the room who will pray with us? Pray for us today.

Would you do that, Ariana? OK, Ariana, pray for us. Remember the tithes and offerings. OK. All right. Here we go.

Jesus said, take this person for your saved beings, and help them.

TFK Jacob said,ственный, Drag it away.

I got about half of it and I trust that you were praying to Jesus and so was I and we're

united.

Let's praise Him today.

Amen.

Amen.

Love this song.

I've sung it so loud I ran out of breath but I'm going to try to do it again today.

Let's go.

Bless the Lord, oh my soul, oh Lord of my soul, worship this holy name.

Oh my soul, worship your holy name.

This song comes up into new day morning.

Let me be singing when we eat, may God.

Oh my soul, oh my soul, worship His holy name.

Oh my soul, oh my soul, worship His holy name.

Oh my soul, worship your holy name.

Oh my soul, worship your holy name.

Oh my soul, worship your holy name.

Oh my soul, oh my soul, worship His holy name.

Oh my soul, worship His holy name.

Oh my soul, worship His holy name.

Oh my soul, worship His holy name.

Bless the Lord, oh my soul, oh my soul, worship His holy name.

If I never before, oh my soul, I worship your holy name.

Bless the Lord, oh my soul, oh my soul, worship His holy name.

If I never before, oh my soul, I worship your holy name.

Worship your holy name, Lord, I worship your holy name.

Seek like never before, oh my soul, I'll worship your holy name.

Worship your holy name, worship your holy name.

What is God, and what is He, holy, holy is He.

Say, if you saw, if you saw, heaven's mercy see.

What is God, and what is He, holy, holy is He.

Sing a little song, to hear the sweet song, heaven's mercy see.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.

It's a creation that's been raised to be in your face.

You are my everything, and I will adore you.

Come and bring her to me, I'll give her color, and she's the one I need more than light to.

Let's sing in honor, she said, glory, and power to me, and to you be all that I need.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.

It's a creation that's been raised to be in your face. You are my everything, and I will adore you.

Filled with wonder, eyes filled with wonder, at the mention of your name.

Jesus, your name is power, breath and living water, such a marvelous mystery.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.

It's a creation that's been raised to be in your face. You are my everything, and I will adore you.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.

It's a creation that's been raised to be in your face. You are my everything, and I will adore you.

I thought those little balloons were punctuation.

I got waves that are coming crashing all around me.

And in all sincerity, Lord, I'm a Vivian.

You call me out of my sight, please, because I know I'm on my way.

You were so back from the dead, I'm a Vivian.

You're a sponge and brush that pours, but you're not a real thing.

You leave, I'll follow, with your hands on my tomorrow. Your breath, your grace, you know the way your mind is handling me.

You leave, I'll follow, just like the way I'm handling you.

You're not going down to me, nor more than I can take. Don't get me on and on and on and on. Just leave me on and on and on.

You're a child after your boys, but as the God made my choice, there's no one here to be good to you.

You're my big son and I'm big. You're my mother and I'm big.

You're my daughter and I'm big. You're my father and I'm big. You're my mother and I'm big.

Now, slowly, I'll follow, just like a rain-and-thunder flow

And I know that you've got me, and all that I can see

So, lead me on and on, on and on

Just lead me on and on, on and on

So, don't wanna wait, I don't wanna get up on my bed

To make thoughts in my head, don't wanna be who I used to be

So, let's sit back, sit and let you in

I, need to stop, need to stop, cause I'm going too fast

I, know my God is the God, and you've got my back

You lead, I'll follow, your hands from my simple throw

Your grip, your grace, becomes the way that I pretend to be

You lead, I'll follow, just like a rain-and-thunder flow

And I know that you've got me, and all that I can see

So, lead me on, lead me on

I, need to stop, need to stop, cause I'm going too fast

I, know my God is the God, and you've got my back

And you've got my back, and you've got my back

And you've got my back, lead me on

Thank you very much

Any other young people that wanna take notes?

Take notes?

I could usually talk dust in this room

You wanted your hand ready? Nothing wrong with your hand ready, girl

You want your hand ready? Better my hand ready

Alright

We are in the midst of a project, in case you didn't know

With that note-taking thing, we are writing a book

We're gonna put the notes all together and give credit where credit is due

When we are through, and I think it's gonna be really cool

I'm super excited about it, but the youth have been working on that with me

And growing a lot through that process, and I read their notes and I'm blessed

I read a note over the week, RJ and I met Friday afternoon actually

And we read through some of those notes, and the one note that one of the young ladies had written

About made me cry, it was so perfectly on target and summed up the scripture

I was like, wow, that felt inspired, it was really good, and it's always good

But that one just really touched my heart

So, we went into an ice cream shop, you ever go into an ice cream shop?

I hope so, because that's a nice place to be, an ice cream shop, you know what I'm saying?

But that being said, some people like ice cream, some people don't

But I like ice cream, and I went to an ice cream shop

And in the ice cream shop, they had 30 wonderful flavors of ice cream

But they really only had about 5 that I really like, you know what I'm saying?

So I could narrow it down real fast to about 5 types of ice cream

Then I looked up on the board, and they had like 30 different toppings

That you could choose from for your ice cream, different kinds of candy, and chocolate syrup

And just all kind of variety

But I was able to narrow it down to about 10 that I really like, you know, that I could stomach

And I wasn't going to eat anything that was just purely candy, because I don't eat candy

I gave that up quite a long time ago now

And so, I was looking at different toppings and things, and I got down to about 10

And then I thought to myself, if there are 5 kinds of ice cream

And there are 10 toppings that I might put on each of those kinds of ice cream

How many total combinations are there?

And I thought, man, that's got to be a lot

I'm going to have to come back to this ice cream shop like every day

Until I get through all this. Woe is me

Is there a mathematician in the house that knows how to calculate that mathematic formula?

5 types of ice cream, 10 toppings?

You're the mathematician

I am not the mathematician

I may be the closest thing, but if it's true, it's only because I prepared

So I want you to bear that thought in mind

The many permutations of 5 flavors of ice cream and 10 toppings

Only 10, not the 30 wonderful flavors, not the 30-40 toppings

But just 5 types of ice cream, which is 10 possible toppings

Bear that thought in mind then with me as we go to the scripture today

And we'll come back to it when we get to the points

So grab your Bibles, if you would, and go with me to 1 Samuel chapter 15

1 Samuel 15 · chapter mention

This is God's Word

You know what? This is maybe one of the least pleasant passages of God's Word

It is a painful experience to apply the truths that are herein laid out to our own lives

Not like all those flavors of ice cream, but just kind of tough to swallow

So we're in 1 Samuel chapter 15, and I'm actually going to begin in verse 10

1 Samuel 15 · chapter mention

Now, I think on the board we have... oh, we do, through 29

I'm going to go through 29, so awesome

And if I feel so led, I may go to a little further, but here we go

1 Samuel chapter 15, beginning in verse 10

1 Samuel 15 · chapter mention

Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying

This is God speaking

I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me

and has not carried out my commands

So real quick, let's break down some things

First of all, you've got Samuel, he's the high priest

You've got Saul, he's the ordained, anointed king of Israel

And then you've got God

God is the one who made Samuel high priest, God is the one who made Saul king

But in this story, we hear God saying to Samuel, the high priest, I regret

And the word there is like a Hebrew word, it's knock-home

And you could use it for regret or repent, like I repent of having done this

I regret I did this, right? So it's sorrow at the action

So here we have God saying, I am sorry, I wish I had not

As if God is regretting making Saul king, and he said it

So you've got to take it for face value

God said, I regret having made Saul king, and he says because, or for because

He has turned back from following me, as he's not doing what I would want him to do

And he has not carried out my commands, and that's very specific

So now we know there is something that God told Saul to do that Saul did not do

And it's going to come out in the passage

And Samuel was distressed, ah, that hurts a little bit, doesn't it?

And he cried out to the Lord all night, all night he's crying out to God

He's begging God, he's talking with God, how can this be so?

And it's kind of like when you read that you start thinking maybe he's sad for Saul

That the king of Israel is now going to be kicked down, right?

That God regrets he made him king, so maybe he's praying for Saul

I submit to you that he's praying for something else

He's praying about something else, and you're going to see what it is by the end of the passage of scripture

All night he cried out to the Lord, and verse 12 says

And Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul

So Samuel gets up and he goes to Saul

And it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel

And behold, he set up a monument for himself and then turned and proceeded on down to Gilgal

Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him

Blessed are you of the Lord

So Saul is given this awesome greeting, faith greeting to Samuel

And he says, I have carried out the command of the Lord

Well, that's good

So then Samuel's going to go, man, that's a relief, right?

God said you were not carrying out his commands, but you say you are carrying out, you have carried out his commands

So God must have just been wrong

I doubt that

That doesn't sound right, does it?

I don't think Samuel would say that

So I think immediately he's recognizing the contrast

And I would submit to you that Saul has so far gone that he has not carried out the commands of the Lord

That he thinks despite he's not carrying out the commands of the Lord

That he actually has carried out the command of the Lord

That's where he's at

And he would actually say to God's high priest

I have carried out the commands of the Lord

Even though the high priest has already been told by God that he has not carried out the commands of the Lord

Verse 14

But Samuel said, what then is this bleeding of the sheep in my ears

And the lowing of the oxen which I hear?

And Saul said, they have brought them from the Amalekites

For the people spared the best of the sheep and oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God

But the rest we have utterly destroyed

Which is an interesting phrase there, utterly destroyed

If you just bop back just one second toward the beginning of the chapter

You see it says in verse 1

Samuel said to Saul, the Lord sent me to anoint you as king over his people over Israel

Now therefore listen to the words of the Lord

Thus says the Lord of hosts, I will punish Amalek

For what he did to Israel and how he set himself against him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt

Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy

There's the phrase, utterly destroy

And the next word says everything I think

All, utterly destroy all that he has

And do not spare him

But put to death both man and woman, child and infant

Ox and sheep, camel and donkey

And then over here we have Saul saying, well I followed the command of the Lord

And he says, the people kept back and spared the best of the sheep, the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God

But the rest we have utterly destroyed

See the contrast?

He did not utterly destroy that which God told him to utterly destroy

He actually kept it back thinking he could do a better thing with it

He's smarter than God, don't you know?

That he would keep it back to do a better thing than whatever God told him

Just utterly destroy the best of the sheep and the oxen

What a waste that we would do that

That can't possibly be right

And so they kept it back

Now it goes on a little further

Samuel said to Saul, wait

And let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night

You tell me you followed exactly what God told you to do

You tell me that you spared the best to sacrifice it to God at Gilgal

Now let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night

And Saul said to him, speak

And Samuel said, is it not true though you were little in your own eyes

And that is true, right?

You remember the story of Saul being anointed?

Like right before he was about to be anointed, where was Saul?

He was hiding amongst the baggage

He was afraid

He knew he was not worthy of being king

And he was hiding

Right?

So they call him out, they're going to anoint him

And he says, and then now a little fast forward to this point

Samuel says, is it not true though you were little in your own eyes

You were made the head of the tribes of Israel?

Now before we go any further, I want to say to you, you can submit right there

Is it not true that you were unworthy in your own eyes

And when you were unworthy in your own eyes

The God of heaven said you could be called a child of God

He's the king of kings and the lord of lords and he chose you

If you were never not worthy in your own eyes

Then when he elevated you to this position

It probably didn't come as any surprise to you

And maybe that leads you to a place where you don't feel like you have very much commitment to God

But if you realize that you were unworthy of the great grace of God

Of salvation, heaven, being called a child of God

Then you like Saul need to pay attention to what's going on here

Because we are in danger of doing the very same thing

Is it not true though you were little in your own eyes

You were made the head of the tribes of Israel

And the lord anointed you king over Israel

And the lord sent you on a mission and said

Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites

And fight against them until they are exterminated

There's a very simple word which we understand what it means

Why then did you not obey the voice of the lord

But rushed upon the spoil and did what was evil in the sight of the lord

Then Saul said to Samuel

I did obey the voice of the lord

And I went on the mission which the lord sent me

And I have brought back Agag the king of Amalek

And have utterly destroyed the Amalekites

But the people took some of the spoil, sheep and oxen

The choicest of the things that were devoted to destruction

To sacrifice to the lord your god at Gilgal

So he's reasoning, it's very close, he's very close

But he didn't follow the commands of the lord

And the only person in this conversation who doesn't seem to know it

Is Saul

I submit to you probably in his heart of hearts he does know it

But he's arguing, if you will, just this little compromise

We just did it a little bit differently

But we're going to sacrifice all those things

Notice that he doesn't mention that they're going to sacrifice the king

Agag

Verse 22 it says

And Samuel said

And now this, if you're reading along in your Bibles

You may have this like in poetic phrasing

Because the words are very poetically organized in the original

It says, has the lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices

As in obeying the voice of the lord

That fits beautifully with this topic

Because he's saying

Does god want you to bring it back and sacrifice it to him

Or did god want you to do with it what you were supposed to do with it

What he told you to do with it

You say you're keeping it so you can sacrifice it and use it for the lord

But the truth is, god just wanted you to do what he told you to do

But he says it poetically

He says, has the lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices

As in obeying the voice of the lord

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice

And to heed than the fat of rams

To heed is to listen to what god is saying and do it

Verse 23

For rebellion is as the sin of divination

Now your translation may be there slightly different

This is the new American standard I'm reading

But the rebellion word always sticks

But the divination word doesn't always stick

Divination is basically witchcraft

It's about telling the future by whatever it means

By controlling the future to a degree

But mostly by telling it the future

So that you can maybe react to what might happen

So you get to figure out what's going to go on

And you're going to be who you want to be

To try to fix what's going to go on

So it's divination or witchcraft

For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft or divination

And in subordination

That means not following the directions of your leader

Which in this case is god

Is as iniquity

Which is just straight up sin or wickedness

And idolatry

Which means worshiping someone or something else

Declaring someone or something else valuable like god

Because you have rejected the word of the lord

So back it up for a second for the full thought

He says rebellion when you don't do what you're supposed to do

Is as the sin of divination or witchcraft

By the way rebellion is as the sin of divination or witchcraft

Not only when it's talking about god

Because there are other authorities

We have the king, we have the president, the governor, police officer, your parents

Whoever in your life that god has placed as an authority

When you rebel that's still rebellion

And he's saying this rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft or divination

You're rebelling trying to see or control the outcome

You know better than the authority that god has placed over you

Other than god himself is really what it's saying

So you rebel against any authority

And so rebelling against any authority

You're really rebelling against god

And this rebellion is like divination, it's like witchcraft

Which by the way at least would say

It's disgusting to god, he hates it, he despises it

He wants nothing to do with it and he doesn't want it in his people

That's the minimum it says

It also says things about it being addictive

About it being an easy road to go down

About it being comfortable

The more you rebel the more comfortable you are with rebelling

The more you rebel and kind of get away with it

The more comfortable you are rebelling

Thinking you're going to get away with it and so on

Rebellion is as the sin of divination

And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry

And again insubordination is not only insubordination to god

It's whenever you're insubordinate

Whenever you resist the leadership that god has placed in your life

The people that god has put over you

You're insubordinate and so being it's like iniquity or wickedness and idolatry

And we're comfortable with it

And it summons evil spirits

And it does all kinds of bad things that surround iniquity and idolatry

Insubordination does

All of that is true because you have rejected the word of the lord

When you are rebellious to someone who's an authority over you

You have rejected the word of the lord

That's what he's saying

When you are insubordinate to someone who has been placed over top of you

You are rejecting the word of the lord

And then he says he has also rejected you from being king

And he tells Saul that Saul will lose his kingship

Chosen, ordained, and anointed by god

He will be removed

We'd like to think, wouldn't we

That these high standards are only applied to leaders

Moses was not allowed to go into a promised land

Because he struck the rock and chastised the Israelites

When he was just supposed to talk to the rock

But he was a leader and got a set an example

He's got to be right and he wasn't right

And so god can't let him receive the same rewards as everybody else

He's got to take him on

You realize that Moses, that man that was able to debate with god

That was able to intercede on behalf of the Israelites

When god said I'm just going to destroy Israel and start over with you

And he's like no just destroy me I don't want that

That man was not allowed to see the promised land

Because he did not follow the commands of the lord

And we like to think that's because they are leaders

Because they are dominant personalities

They are held to a higher standard

I submit to you no, as a child of god that man was held to a higher standard

As an originator of things to come in the kingdom of god

He was held to a higher standard

And you and I are the same as that

These are the reasons that people are held to this standard

Because when they are rebellious or insubordinate

They have rejected the word of the lord

You don't have to be king, elected to some office

You don't have to be a child rebelling against their parents specifically

There are no specifics here

If you have rejected the word of the lord

You too will be rejected by the lord

That's what it says

It hurts

Verse 24

Then Saul said to Samuel

I have sinned

I have indeed transgressed the command of the lord and your words

Because I feared the people and listened to their voice

Now he's got an excuse, a reason why

But other than that it sounds like repentance

He's coming back to god, he's coming back to Samuel

And then the church under the grace of Jesus Christ

We'd be like, yeah, one sinner repented

We're rejoicing, we're so excited

We will receive you, we will cry with you, we will pray over you

And the grace of god is sufficient, how wonderful it is

Sounds like he's repentant

But he does say, because I feared the people and listened to their voice

So he's qualifying his decision

Verse 25

Now therefore, please, pardon my sin

And return with me that I may worship the lord

All he wants to do is worship god

Isn't that just what anybody should want?

Please, pardon my sin, forgive my sin

And return with me that I may worship the lord

Verse 26 says

But Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you

You have rejected the word of the lord

And the lord has rejected you from being king over Israel

And as Samuel turned to go

Saul seized the edge of his robe and tore it

And it tore

So Samuel said to him

The lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today

And let's be very clear, that is exactly accurate

He had the kingdom of Israel

He was given the kingdom of Israel to take care of, to rule over

To lead, to be an example, all of those things

He had the kingdom

And he says, now, God has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today

And has given it to your neighbor who is better than you

And we know that that will be David, but he doesn't name him here

And also the glory of Israel will not lie or change his mind

For he is not a man that he should change his mind

That verse at the end there where you see the phrase change his mind

In the New American Standard

That word there is nokom

I mentioned it earlier, remember what I said?

It means to repent

To regret or draw back from the course of action

I submit to you that it sounds like Saul was repenting or drawing back

But we didn't start there

We started with this verse

Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel saying

I regret that I have made Saul king

For he has turned back from following me

See, Saul had turned back from following God

He had repented essentially from following God

And God was repenting or regretting having made Saul king

But now we see

And I think this is why the New American Standard translates this way

Most of them do, but some don't

Because the original word is to repent or regret

Now we see it says

The glory of Israel talking about God will not lie or change his mind

In other words, or repent or regret, come back from that decision

For he is not a man that he should repent or regret his decisions

But the first verse said

God said he regretted or repented of his decision to make Saul king

And the last verse Samuel is saying

God is not a man that he should repent or regret his decisions

Three things I want you to see in the text

And I hope we'll bring it all together

The first thing is

This thing that Saul did is easy

It's literally easy

Any slight variance on a command of God

Any slight variance of the truth and it becomes what?

Say it again

A falsehood, a lie

If you take the truth and you change it at all

Any slight variance

For example, you're apologizing to somebody and you say you're sorry

You say I'm sorry, but you have altered the I'm sorry

Any slight variance of the truth becomes a lie

And then let's say you wanted to change it back to be the truth

Could you slightly vary the lie that you have now created

To make it be the truth?

No

This is why it's so easy to vary from the commands of God and to vary from the truth

Because when you say the truth it is the truth and it stops

It has a period, there's no qualifications, there's no parenthesis

There's no extra commas in there, it's just the truth

And then when you vary the truth slightly it becomes a lie

I'll give you an example, same analogy

I'm so sorry I did that to you

But I had a good reason, but I am sorry

Right?

You go back and restate the beginning but it doesn't fix the fact that you said you had a good reason in the middle

At the very least we now have to understand the good reason

Or we're required to accept your apology because you had a good reason

You're messing with the truth and if you mess with the truth the truth becomes a lie

You mess with the lie it just becomes a different lie

There's no taking a lie and making it into the truth, you can't do it, it's not even possible

That's why it's so easy

The slight variances

You choose a slight variance, you compromise just a little

And from that compromise there is literally no going back

There's no repenting of the compromise, there is no going back

God always starts with, you guessed it, God and that's it

It doesn't start with your position of ignorance, your position of compromise, your position of falsehood

It starts with God, the only way to get to God is through God

You go back to God and if you go over here and you say now how do I get back to God from here?

You get back to God the same way you got to God in the first place

I submit to you if you're over here there's a possibility you never got to God in the first place

Because why would you ever go over there if God made you a child of God?

Why would you start to compromise? But it's so easy

In an ice cream shop, five flavors of ice cream

Ten toppings

Ten toppings

The answer is five flavors of ice cream times

Ten, I'm sorry, times two to the tenth power

That's the answer of the varieties, that's how you calculate that

The reason you do that is because let's say you're going to have sprinkles as one of your toppings

Either you have sprinkles or you don't have sprinkles, that's two

Then you go to the next topping, you have chocolate syrup

Either you have chocolate syrup or you don't have chocolate syrup, that's two

But every time you have two possibilities you have to multiply it by all of the other possibilities

Because you may have sprinkles and not have chocolate

You may have no sprinkles and have chocolate

So it multiplies by all the possibilities

So the answer is five times two to the tenth power

Two to the tenth power is 1024

There are 1024 topping combinations

But there are 1024 topping combinations for five flavors of ice cream

So the actual answer is 5120

Five flavors of ice cream, ten toppings, 5120 combinations

Almost ten years there are a lot of combinations

And you may go in there and you may say I'm going to get chocolate

I'm going to get sprinkles, I'm going to get Oreo cookies

You may pick the ones you like the best and you may eat it

And you may go, that's the best ice cream

I'll never eat another kind of ice cream ever

Because I now am sworn to this flavor

This is my flavor

And you may go back for ten years and get the same flavor

And in the eleventh year you may go

I wonder what it would taste like with just a dab of strawberry syrup

It's so easy to get off the perfect equation, the perfect formula, the perfect calculation of what it is

Except there is a place where the perfect formula, the perfect equation, the perfect calculation actually does exist

Do you know it? Do I know it? The answer is no

But God knows it

God knows the recipe for your life, He knows the variables, He knows where it's going to go

We just sang the song, God alone knows the future He has for you

You may be sitting here today thinking you're going to die

You may be sitting here today thinking you're going to struggle to grow up and become a man or a woman

You may be sitting here today thinking I don't know where my relationships go

But God knows if you work the perfect combination and follow the commands of the Lord and stay faithful to Him

He knows that He will take you to a place that you could never go by any variance, by any calculation, by any choice of decisions on your own

It isn't over until it's over

But when I read the text I see there is a time when it is over

Oh, it's so easy to compromise

So easy to make a minor adjustment, to make something important up near

But it's not a God, it's just important

But then you realize that you're taking some of the devotion, some of the attention, some of the worship from God and devoting it to these other times

We read book after book after book but we don't read the Bible

Oh, I'm disciplining myself, I'm reading my Bible every day

So we read the Bible for five minutes every day

But by the end of the week we've spent five hours on magazines or books or social media or whatever

You tell me, if you budget your time this way, God gets five minutes a day, that's 35 minutes this week

And of my free time, of the time that I get to choose to do whatever with, anything else gets five or ten or fifteen hours

You're trying to tell me that that thing is not important to you like God?

It's so easy to compromise, it's so easy to drift

But it's a problem, it is the problem

It is the problem of man's existence

Assuming that you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and become a follower of God

This is literally the only problem that remains

Because you're going to go to heaven one day and everything else, cancer, car accidents, broken relationships

Not enough money at the end of the month to pay your bills

All of those things are going to go away

But this thing is a problem that persists because it says in this text as we have read it

That there can come a moment in time where you have chosen to be literally a king

Where you're chosen to be the child of God and there's no coming back from this problem

And the kingdom of God can be torn from you

I'm not talking about losing your salvation, I submit to you it's probable

Saul's heart was never for God in the first place

What I'm talking about is these variances that you can choose, these rebellions, this insubordination

That you can choose on a daily basis, these slight variances can add up to take you to a place where you cannot come back from

Notice the second important thing in this text that the Lord really laid heavily on my heart

And that is that the reason behind why these things are so bad is that they have a continuing consequence

And admittedly it is a continuing consequence that we do not know

God may say you're driving down the road one day and you've been praying and you've been thinking, you're living for the Lord

And you come to a turn on red and the Lord says turn on red

And you say but Lord that's not the way to work or that's not the way to wherever I'm going

But the Lord said clearly in your heart you know it's Him and He's speaking to you, so turn right

And you say I can't imagine what the consequence, why would I do that, why would I not do what I was going to do

And you delay and the light turns green and you go straight instead of turning

You don't know what the continuing consequences of any decision can be

But God does know what the continuing consequences of any decision can be

Now you can understand that if the actions that God is asking you to engage in are radical in nature

If He's asking you to take large risks, to get outside what He has already orchestrated in you

To do something completely different than what you've ever done

Something that seems like a break from the history that God has created in your life

Then the continuing consequences by their very nature must be very large

Does God sound gracious when God says I want you to go and wipe out every Amalekite man, woman, and unborn child

Every last Amalekite, does that sound gracious?

But we know God is a loving and merciful and gracious God

That God would command such a radical thing, you'd be like man if God is asking me to do something that radical

First of all, you'd be 100% sure it's what He wants

And then being 100% sure that it's what He wants, you'd have to assume that you would not want to vary from the course

Not in the slightest because any variation will result in continuing consequences, something that you can't imagine

So this guy who really figures pretty small in the chapter, the king of the Amalekites, his name was Agag

This is how good Agag gets it in the end

Samuel eventually has him cut to pieces in front of everybody

Cut to small pieces is what the text says

But in the meantime, after the Amalekites fell and every Amalekite was slain except for him, he's the last living Amalekite

Some point in time in there, oh Agag, he gets time with a woman

Now should that happen? No, it shouldn't happen

He's free enough to lay with a woman in that time

Now I don't know why that happens, I'm thinking Saul must have been treating him reasonably well, you know what I'm saying?

So he gets time to lay with a woman and he has an offspring that has an offspring

And pretty soon there is a man born, his name is, anybody know before I say it?

Haman, Haman the Agagite

Anybody recognize that name? Comes from the book of Esther

Haman the Agagite, an offspring of Agag, which there were no other offspring of Agag that survived

Because everyone in this text agrees that he wiped out the entire tribe of the Amalekites and all of Agag's offspring were destroyed

But some time after he was captured, he laid with a woman and he birded the child and that child birded the child and so on

And they got Haman the Agagite

Does anybody remember the role of Haman the Agagite in the story of Esther?

He's an advisor to the king, he has the king's ear

He hates Mordecai, because Mordecai will only bow to God, not to Haman

Esther is called to become the queen

Mordecai comes here and says you need to intervene on behalf of your people

Because Haman the Agagite has convinced the king to pass a law that says on a certain day

That the Persians where they were in captivity in Persia was allowed to kill every Jew, every Jewish person

Haman convinced the king to pass a law to say that they could kill every Jew on a certain day

Now Esther was a Jew and Mordecai was a Jew, that meant they were both on the chop block

Except nobody really knew that Esther was a Jew, she lived in the household of the king and she was kind of in secret

And Mordecai says to her, don't you think if you don't go to the king over this that you'll be spared just because you're in the king's household?

But I want you to understand that maybe you were called for just such a day as this

And she does, she goes to the king and the king eventually does it in kind of a seductive way if you will

But eventually the king passes a rule that says on that day when the Persians come after the Jews

And if they killed a Jew they were allowed to take all their possessions

It's like licensed piracy, kill the Jews, take everything they have, their land, their money, everything

Anything they've got, take it

But on that day anybody who came after a Jew, the Jews were allowed to fight back

And if they fought back and they defeated whoever came after them then they could take their stuff

So he made the law a two-way street

And Haman the Agagite eventually is found out to be the betrayer that he is

And he's hanged on the gallows that he himself built for Mordecai

Now this is generations later after Agag sleeps with whoever while he's in captivity under King Saul

And if he doesn't sleep with whoever, if he doesn't have an offspring

There's no Haman the Agagite

There's no person to be insulted over the fact that Mordecai won't bow to him like he bows to God

There's no person to suggest to the king, to push the king, to prod the king, to make a rule

To potentially wipe out the Jews

Do you think God knows that?

Do you think Saul knows that?

See when you vary the commands of God, even the most extreme commands of God

When you vary them even slightly, you're messing with the continuing consequences that God knows exist

You say, you know, like I'm too busy

I'm too busy to study my Bible faithfully

And in so doing you send your children to hell

No!

Don't say my children are going to hell because of something I did

God knows the continuing consequences

You decide to take Bible study off

You don't go to Bible study

And in so doing you show your children that that's not that important

And then when they get older they've got it in the back of their mind

Well, when I was 5, 10, 15, whatever, my parents took Bible study off

So I don't need to do Bible study

It's not important

The pastor stands up and you act like what the pastor says is just the pastor

Because that's what the pastor is

He's required to do that

He's a little freaky, but he's only freaky like that because he's supposed to be like that

Because he's supposed to be the pastor

Because God kind of touched him and now he's kind of crazy

Right?

And your children watch you not follow the preached word of God

You say, but I'm following the word of God

But the variances that you develop have continuing consequences

You say, my child will never walk away from the Lord

I submit to you what about your child's child or your child's child's child

What's on the line?

This very situation that existed in Saul's life has existed in the church since the kingdom of God was made available

And men failed to live with the Lord and not in our church, praise God

But in a lot of churches you go in and you know what you see?

Women and children

And men won't step up and be the man that they're supposed to be

They won't be godly

And in our church, our women just wouldn't tolerate that, praise the Lord

But some of our men have to come without women

Because their woman won't do it

Or because they're single at this point in time

As a man, I submit to you that we can trust the Lord with the continuing consequences of following Him or not following Him

Simply put, hell is the ultimate continuing consequence of the person who does not accept the Lord and follow the Lord

And if you said when you got saved that you would follow Him and then you some point down the road repented

Now we have a contradiction

You say, but I never, I always said I'd continue to follow Him

But if you take a strong analytic look at your life you will find things in which you need to act

You need to, I need to change this

This has to be different

I'm supposed to be following, I'm a follower of God

There is a contradiction in my choices

I have slipped to the point that I altered this slightly, I altered that slightly

And now I say, well I will follow the Lord

But in this small list of things that I keep hidden away in a dark place that I never mentioned

I'm not going to follow God in those things

And I submit to you when you've got to that point and you recognize that point

There is only one thing to do and that is repent and come back to the Lord as you did at the first

And if you do not, then you like Saul are causing a situation to exist in the heart of our God that simply cannot exist

The continuing consequences of our choices

We're going to read two texts, I won't break them down for the interest of time but I think you'll get the gist

First one's in Hebrews

Go to the book of Hebrews if you're following along

And if you're taking notes and not following along, make a note of this reference

Hebrews 3, beginning in verse 12

There is no substitute for hearing and reading the word of God at the same time

And this is one of the few times you get an opportunity in a week to do that, so I do encourage you to do that

Hebrews 3, beginning in verse 12, this is what it says

Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart in falling away from the living God

Now this is written to Christians, or people who profess to be Christian anyway

And he says, take care, watch out, be careful, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart in falling away from the living God

Ouch!

But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called today, lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin

For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end

While it is said, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me

For who provoked him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses

And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

And to whom did he swear that they should not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient?

And so we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief

Remember what it said? Rebellion is as the sin of divination or witchcraft because you have not followed the word of the Lord

And so on

One more text, 2 Peter chapter 3

2 Peter 3 · chapter mention

2 Peter chapter 3

2 Peter 3 · chapter mention

It begins in verse 1

And it is kind of lengthy, I won't break it all down, but you'll get it

This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder

That you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles

Don't forget, I am writing you a second letter to remind you not to forget these things

Know this, first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his coming?

For ever since the fathers fell asleep all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation

For when they maintain this it escapes their notice by the word of God that heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water

Through which the world at that time was destroyed being flooded with water

But the present heavens and earth by his word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men

But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day

The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat

And the earth and its works will be burned up, since all these are to be destroyed in this way

What sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness?

Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning and the elements will melt with intense heat

That according to his promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells

Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless and blameless

And regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation, just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you

As also in all his letters speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand

Which the untaught and unstable distort, that means they find variances or they make compromises

As they do also the rest of the scriptures to their own destruction

You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard lest being carried away by the error of unprincipled men you fall from your own steadfastness

And then 18, but grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity, amen

Number one, understand that it is so easy, I got into a debate with a man who is quite close to me, his family

And he believes that he is a Christian, he believes that he is a homosexual

And I said, what are you going to do with this verse? And you know what he did, you know what he did

He said, well that verse doesn't mean exactly what you think it means, what it actually means is this

And his interpretation of the verse is a slight variance, it's just barely off of what the actual wording exactly means

And I said, but that's not what it says

I was a young Christian, a Christian not even baptized, a young Christian for two weeks

And I went to Sunday School at East Toledo Baptist Church for the first time I had been in Sunday School since I was five years old

And I don't remember a single thing about the lesson from when I was five

But I remember the very first day we were reading in the book of Revelation

And the teacher said, where it says in Revelation that the streets are as pure as gold as pure as glass

That's what it actually says, they are gold as pure as glass

And he said that the streets in heaven were glass, he said they are glass, that means they are glass

And I said, no it says they are gold as pure as glass

And we never got to have our lesson that Sunday, much to my chagrin

Because I would have liked to have learned more from the Word of God

And I believe this person was a believer and he was trying to do the best that he possibly could to teach or whatever

We spent 40 minutes, me, 25 years old, in a room full of men, all of whom were 50 or higher

And all but one of whom were 60 or higher, who had studied the Bible pretty much their whole lives

Arguing whether the streets of heaven are made of gold or glass

Now ultimately I get it, who cares? I want to go there, if it was glass I'd be perfectly satisfied when I get there, right?

It doesn't matter, I'm getting perfectly satisfied either way

However it does matter because the Word of God says they are gold as pure as glass

And to teach that they are made of glass because it says they are gold as pure as glass is just falsehood

If you vary the truth, it's falsehood

And who knows what the continuing consequence might be of someone believing that they are made of glass instead of gold

When it says they are made of gold

But it's so easy, I've done it

I was teaching a lesson at East Littledo Baptist Church as a youth leader, teaching the teenagers

And I taught what the book said

The book said that baptism was part of your salvation

You get saved and you get baptized, it's like two feet of the same statue

You get saved and you get baptized

That's why people were so quick to get baptized when they got saved because it's part of your salvation

And you and I both know that's not true

The thief on the cross was saved, he was never baptized

The people that argue that baptism is part of your salvation will say, well he was baptized by fire

Like Jesus did, he was hung on a cross

He was hung on a cross for his sins as a thief

Right?

Judged in court to crucifixion

The bottom line is, baptism is not part of your salvation

And I knew that, but I taught the lesson as it was written

And then I had to come back

I think the next week, for some reason we didn't meet

And the next week I had to come back and I had to say to everybody that was in the room

Look, this is what we had last week

But the truth is, this

And we looked at the scripture and what it says

I was teaching the material that had been provided for me and it was wrong

And if you think you've never done it, you're probably struggling a little bit with arrogance

Because you probably have, you've taught somebody the wrong thing

You made a choice that to you made perfect sense, a slight variation

A different set of toppings that are completely inside the bounds

But one variation leads to another variation

And these compromises will take you to a place from which you cannot return

The last thing in the text

Samuel is pointing out to Saul

And I think then to us

Sinful similarities that arise out of a haughty heart

This is how simple it gets

Literally every variance that is not straight up the truth

Every reason that you would find to not follow the commands of God exactly as they are written

Every single one of them has this same sinful similarity

Rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft

Insubordination is iniquity, which is like lumps in all wickedness

And idolatry, which is thinking anything is important like God

Worshiping, false worship, etc.

All sin has this component to it

A haughty heart

You have a heart that for somehow would make you think that you know better than the God of the universe

And you say, well I don't have to do that even though God's word says I do have to do that

And that's a problem with your heart

And that's a problem you cannot fix, and he can

But you don't want to depend on him to fix it because if you did, you would have to do what he tells you to do

We want to live a life of content compromise rather than a life of content contriteness

We read those verses in scripture where it says

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me

And we want to claim the promise even though we realize we are compromising on other parts of scripture

Not doing what God has commanded us to do

Or not doing what we have discovered that we know God wants us to do

Or his Holy Spirit convicted us and it's in line with scripture

And so our heart is not contrite before the Lord

We have not recognized that God who created everything then called you out of the darkness into his kingdom

As a God of the universe who literally created everything and will recreate it

Let's be very fair and realistic, he will destroy it all and recreate it all

That's what the scripture says

That God chose you to become a child of him

And if you recognize the amount of what is there, just how much God did to make you a child of God

Just how much he did that literally no one else can do

Then somewhere in there is a contrite heart

A heart that says Lord, I only just want to be what you want me to be

I only just want to do what you want me to do

Not I just want to do what you want me to do

But please let me be alive to see my kids graduate from high school

Or God, I really want you to come, I really want Jesus to come

And I want to go to heaven with you and come

But don't make me stop working all these hours and making this money

Or controlling my relationships the way I want to make things turn out

Or insert whatever it is you want to do

If you have a pause or a clause or a variance or a compromise

You need to let it go

And let your contrite heart, a heart that recognizes who God is and what he has done

By the little bit that you understand

Leads you to set aside many activities that you would otherwise authorize

And to adopt many activities which you can see from where you're sitting will make you uncomfortable

The sinful similarities that Samuel was pointing out to Saul

We all see them

We all know them

We all have them

We're uniquely different

Everybody's unique

That's what makes us equal because we're all one unique person

But that being so, we all have that tendency to go

Well, maybe just a dab of syrup will make better the perfect mix

Or maybe I just need to vary it slightly so it authorizes what I'm doing

And the grace of God will cover it anyway, won't it?

We are called not to compromise, not to take the easy road

To recognize the continuing consequences and how we can never know what all they are

But he can

To see the sinful similarities and realize they do not arise out of the nature of what that thing is

You don't get to go, well, I will lie but I will never rape anybody

You don't get to go, well, I'm not a murderer but I'm sure ticked off of the guy who cut me off in traffic

You don't get to go, well, I'll go to worship and raise my voice to God and praise him and really give him praise

But when it comes to controlling my foot on the gas pedal, God's got nothing to do with that

You don't get to do that

A contrite heart, you're all in because the sinful similarities do not arise out of the nature of the sin

They arise out of the nature of your regenerative heart

The internal you that has been changed by God

And if you willingly say, no, I want to vary it, I want to change it, I want to walk away from it

You are repenting or relenting

Naqam, you're backing down from who you said you wanted to be

Don't back down from who you said you wanted to be in Christ

You say, but God is asking me to do something that completely breaks and is different from everything in my history

Everything that's my personality

I have to step out and risk everything

Because of who I am, I'm going to have to work ten times as hard to do this thing that God is calling me to

Than anyone else would have to work

I can totally see how that person who sits over there can easily do this

And he's not doing it, but I know it needs to be done

And for me to do it, I've got to go watch videos and learn skills and buy tools and do all of this

To do what it is that I see needs to be done

Because I'm just mad at that person because they won't do it

I'm just mad at that person because there's nobody to do it

Now I have to do it and it's going to cost me everything

I literally have to lay my life on the line to do this thing that God wants done

That I know what you want done

Do you have a contrite heart or not?

When God calls you out of who you are to be something new and different, completely changed

It's no different than salvation

And then you said yes

So now he's calling you out of who you are to be who you're supposed to be to do something completely different

And I submit to you that if he's doing that it's because he knows the continuing consequences

That you do not know

And you have to say yes to God and no to everything else

And that brings us to our conclusion then

And it is this

Why?

Why should God regret?

See he said God said to Samuel

I regret or I repent of having made Saul king

God said it

Samuel said to Saul

God can't regret

So did Samuel lie about God?

No, what Samuel was doing was he was pointing out the contradiction

He was showing how it should not make any sense

It cannot be

That the God of heaven who has authored all

Could originate a circumstance which would lead him to need to regret having done so

It cannot be

It's the eternal contradiction

So if you or I take the easy road

The slight variances that make the compromises

If we don't think about or submit to God the continuing consequences

If we allow those sinful similarities to take root and stick

Because our prideful heart won't recognize that we're screwing it up

We're the ones doing it

That's a contradiction

We can readily see the contradiction that says I said I would follow God

And now I'm not

We see that contradiction

One thing is true or the other

Samuel was pointing out this contradiction

That if God has made you a child of God

If you truly have been saved and brought into his kingdom

Then it should never be so that he would regret having done so

Essentially what Samuel was saying is

You're the king of Israel

God made it so when you thought you were unworthy and you were nothing

God called you out to make you the king of Israel

And he didn't submit to you

You never really let that happen

It doesn't make any sense that God would make you the king of Israel

And then regret making you the king of Israel

That just doesn't work that way because God sees the past, the present, and the future

And all possible variations thereof

So what's actually true, Samuel was saying to Saul

Was that God made you the king

But you refused

You relented

You backed down

You quit

I have a favorite line from a poem

Which I am ashamed to say that until today I didn't even know the whole poem

But I've always loved this line from this poem

And basically I quoted the line like this

As I came to a place in a wood where two paths diverged

And I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference

Now when I was unsaved, living as a sinner, I had this poem

I had read it in high school and it attached itself to me and I was excited about it

And I said, I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference

And I said that about taking risks

I said that about jumping my motorcycle over railroad tracks or drinking and driving

I said it about violence, fighting, backing down bullies or taking a hit

I said it about all of these kinds of things

But I submit to you, I have now learned by this message here today

That I was misusing it

I'm going to read the poem to you and then I have an explanation and we'll be through

This is what it actually says

It says, Two roads diverged in a yellow wood

And sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler

Long I stood

And looked down

One as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth

Then took the other

As just as fair

And having perhaps the better claim

Because it was grassy

And wanted wear

Though as for that, the passing there

Had worn them really about the same

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black

Oh, I kept the first for another day

Yet knowing how way leads on to way

I doubted if I should ever come back

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence

Two roads diverged in a wood

And I took the one less traveled by

And that has made all the difference

Let me tell you today what the road less traveled by is

There is a road

One well-worn

Way, way

It is a sinful way

It is a way of compromises

It is a way of slight alterations of the command of God

There is a road that is well-worn

And many people have gone down it

Because it is easy

But I want you to say with me today

Knowing that there is no way that you can travel both worlds and still be one person

You cannot do it

You can't go down both roads

A road of faithfulness to the Lord and also a road of compromises

You cannot go down both roads and still be one person

And since you are one person

I am asking you today to take the road with me that is less traveled

The road that is not beaten down

Not trodden down

Not easy or smooth

The road that is rough and hard work and difficult to follow

Impossible to follow without the grace of God

Let us go down the road the way that is not well-worn

Take the commands of God at face value

Read our Bibles and stop trying to figure out a way to make them say what we want them to say

Not even the slightest variation

Not by any compromise

But simply do what is therein written

Take the commands of God in our heart

As the Holy Spirit fills you up

Just do what it is that you know God wants you to do

I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence

I know where that place will be

Two roads diverged in a wood

And I took the one less traveled by

And that has made all the difference

We stand at that intersection right now

And I am asking you to take the road less traveled by

No compromise

No backing down

I will live for the Lord Jesus Christ and do what He would have me to do

No matter the cost

Over any barrier

Past any burden

And ages from now let us say

There we stood that day and chose the road less traveled by

Saul didn't do it

And from him was torn the Kingdom of Israel

And if you won't do it out of a love for God and a contrite heart

Then do it out of fear

Because a loving fear of God is a healthy fear

Let us say we took the road less traveled by

I ask the praise team to come at this time and lead us in a closing hymn

But if you are here today and you know either

A. You have not followed the Lord

You have not committed your life to Christ

And said okay Lord come be Lord of my life

And let me live for you

If you have not done that then you do that right now in this moment

And you come and you say that's me

I want to live for Jesus from now on

I want to publicly tell everybody

And Jesus said if you will proclaim before men

If you will tell about me before men

I will tell about you before my Father in heaven

But if you will not tell about me before men

I will not tell before my Father in heaven

So don't deny Jesus

If you are accepting Jesus today you come

You come right here and you say this is me

Whatever it means not knowing the continuing consequences

I am going to live for the Lord no compromises

And if you already have accepted

The Lord Jesus Christ but you know

You've been playing around compromising

Making slight adjustments finding ways

To make it work for you backing down

From the tough things that God has asked you to do

Because they're just not the way you're wired

You don't just like it or it'll make you tired

Or people won't like it whatever your

Reasons have been you stop with your reasons

And just do what God has called you to

And today you repent and turn to the Lord

As you did at the first and say

I am living for God no compromises

And then let us all together

Take the road less traveled by

A road of no compromises

No rebellion

No insubordination

A road of grace

And then we grow in the grace of God together

Stand with me as we sing this song

But if you're responding

You're only the same you just can't

Oh, so you will reign and trust

No light in the darkness you see

There's light for all the campers, saviors

And life for all the tent and tree